Background:

An absolute beauty of a car, in fact one of my top 5 American cars, the Corvette C4 is underserved by quality kits. AMT or Monogram, this one came across my path first so I figured one quality would be much as another having built some not great AMT kits either.

Kit review:

Pros:

Captures the lines of the C4 very well. There is a lot of detail, a full engine and even parts down to a seperate oil filler cap. The interior is especially nicely moulded and the interior all fits together very nicely. Nice clear parts. Unlike so many US kits, it's 1/24 rather than 1/25 so sits better in my collection.

Cons:

No windscreen wipers and as typical for US kits of this era, the front wheels don't steer. Worse is the general quality of the fit and finish. It reminds me of the Revell Bugatti EB110 insofar as it's a triumph of model kit engineering let down by mediocre production quality. The front lower wishbones just don't sit where they are supposed to and I omitted them in the end. The construction requires the body put on the chassis long before the suspension is complete, so increasing the amount of handing you have to do on the body whilst still applying glue everywhere. Chrome parts are nasty on the whole. The decal sheet is woeful - just two badly printed number plates and nothing more. The bonnet (hood) won't shut properly even if you leave some of the engine components out. Put them all in and it certainly won't even attempt to shut. Final point and possibly my fault for not washing the kit beforehand - paint just hates sticking to this one and flakes off at times. I've never had to wash a kit before though. Crappy flimsy box of a non-standard size.

Verdict:

High on detail, mediocre on quality. I was glad when it was complete and I didn't have to handle it any further - very nervous about flaking paint. Looks awesome on the shelf though.

Build notes:

My second completion of 2026, Completed on March 24th and taking about 7 weeks start to finish (although 3 of those I was away). It's painted in BMW Messing Metallic (such an odd name for a colour), clearcoated with Mr Hobby Premium Top Coat. It's an unusual colour looking pearlescent at times and I thought it'd be either a triumph or a disaster on this car. Suits it very well in the end. The wheels have been swapped for Aoshima 19 inch Volk Racing RE30. I drew up my own Corvette and ZR-1 decals and had them printed to make up for what the kit lacks. Parts of the engine are left unglued in so they can be removed for display with the bonnet shut.

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